Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Melbourne (VIC) Team
• Page 4

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Melbourne Team (VIC)

Meets every Saturday, with alternating weekly outreach times, either 5:30pm - 8:30pm or 3pm - 6pm. Meet near Starbucks Galleria (385 Bourke St, Melbourne). Join the Melbourne Facebook group here to get the outreach time for this week.

Also we have a practical training outreach each month. Next one will be: Sunday 15th March 2020 4pm-6pm at 385 Bourke St, Melbourne.

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The weather was great once again !, It is truly God’s grace that the weather has been so good during outreach hours. There were lots of people despite being Tuesday evening. three of us gathered and shared the word and prayed for the evangelism. 

As it is Christmas season, we took the advantage of it by asking “what do you think about Christmas?” and also It gave us opportunity to easily start the conversation naturally.

One of the highlight was the conversation that I had with very devoted Muslim named Saat, he was about 25 years old and he was ready with answers and questions to prove that Jesus is not GOD and Jesus did not actually died on the cross by sighting Quran so I spent around 45 minutes with him where Jesus himself claimed that He was God and why the death on the cross and resurrection is so crucial for our forgiveness and justification and also for God to stay just and loving at the same time. Saat did listened carefully and read the bible verses that were sighted to him but at last he said "bible is not in its original language so it cannot be trusted” It seemed like Saat really dislike the idea of God being man becoming sacrifice and that it is not our righteous act but it is God’s grace that saves us so that God receive all the credit. It was clear that Saat was quite frustrated and at times raised his voice but he promised to think about it. So please pray for Saat. 

Finally, I met a lady called Mary, when I opened up the conversation she kept on mentioning “I am not the right person to talk to” but when her eternity was questioned she engaged into conversation. Gospel was shared and she said that she would think about it. So please pray for Mary as well.

From Huy Do who joined the evangelism:- 

It is nearing Christmas, people reacted better than expected, Christmas season provides a great opportunity to talk about why it is that Jesus was born and why was that birth so significant. One great highlight of evangelism was a conversation with a young student from Singapore by the name of Joseph. He was asked the question of “what makes it so significant about a man born in a manger that we have to celebrate His birth 2000 years later?”. The question, along with his answer provides a wonderful opportunity to share with him the Gospel. He was convicted of his sins and was provided with a way out of his sins, with salvation through the Gospel, please pray that God would change his heart.

Soli Deo Gloria ! who sustains us and give sufficient grace everyday to glorify and enjoy Him by preaching the gospel

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This Saturday, the weather was great and pleasant. There were many people out in the Melbourne city to enjoy the weather and the Christmas decorations in the city. 

As usual we gathered at Starbucks and shared the word and prayed together before the evangelism. By God’s grace seven of us came out for evangelism.  

There were many interesting conversations. We met with three teenage boys; they claimed themselves to be atheist and do not believe in GOD. So, we asked simple apologetic questions like 'how we know that there are builders for the buildings and painter for the painting etc.', and surprisingly they responded positively to the questions and started to show interest in the conversation. The Gospel was shared and they understood the need of saviour for their sinful and dead state. One of the guys seemed quite offended and did not like the truth that we are sinful man heading to hell. However, it was quite clear that he was convinced and started to struggle whether this Gospel is ‘real’. 

We also had exciting conversations with Muslims. One of them was Sam. Sam was from Iran and he came to Melbourne with a working holiday visa. We started by telling him how Jesus in the Quran and Jesus in the Bible seems like similar person, but it is very different in essence, and we shared about the necessity of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection and deity of Christ Jesus. Although some Muslims looked uncomfortable with idea Jesus being ‘GOD’ they seemed challenged with the message of good news.

Lastly, there was a person who seemed bit drunk or drug affected. When we approached him and started the conversation he said that he is a really bad person and that it seems like he will never be able to go to heaven. It seemed like he was really broken inside and did not see any hope for his sinful state so we shared that Jesus came for who came for the sick who sees the need for the doctor, that Jesus came to call the sinners not those who thinks they are righteous (Mark 2:17). We forgot his name but please remember him in prayer. 

Overall, all seven of us had really good encounters. Praise Jesus for using unworthy servants like us! Please pray for those people who heard the gospel so that they may repent and put their trust in Jesus Christ. And please join us for evangelism as it is Christmas season, such a good season to start up the conversation about Jesus Christ. 

                                                   

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Praise God for His faithfulness who has enabled the Melbourne team to officially start evangelising again !!.

We gathered at Starbucks near Bourke St. Melbourne CBD and started the evangelism with prayer and by taking some time to get to know each other.

We were very thankful as the weather was really good and pleasant, as Melbourne weather can change and shift very rapidly.

We started by sharing the gospel tracts and soon after, we were engaged in conversations with people who were sitting down and enjoying the good weather.

I encountered a couple and asked if I could ask them a question and they respectfully said "yes". I asked them "what do you think happens when you die?" They were surprised with the question and said "maybe heaven?". I asked, "If there is a God who is holy, righteous and perfect and He made heaven and hell, do you think you are good enough to go to heaven?"The couple laughed and said, "yes I think so, we are pretty good people".

So I asked them questions about lying, stealing, lust, and hating people,and they realised that they weren’t good enough according to God’s standard. Then the good news was displayed about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the couple started to see the need to believe in Jesus Christ. Although the couple did not say that they will believe in Jesus, they responded positively saying that they will think about what was discussed.

Apparently there are a lot of men waiting for their wives to finish shopping outside of the shopping mall in Bourke St, and it is a great opportunity for us to evangelise to those men as they are often bored waiting. We approached a man who was patiently waiting for his wife. At first he denied to talk with us, but when we asked him about his thoughts on the after life, he started to show interest and engaged in conversation. After the law and gospel was shared, he responded well by seeing the need for a Saviour and sacrifice for our sin if God is truly just and loving at the same time. We urged him to believe as soon as possible as we do not know when we are going to die. 

Overall, by God’s grace there were so many good conversations on Saturday, not many oppositions, but rather positive responses to the gospel. Please pray for Melbourne team as we have just begun. Pray for unity and for more labourers, but all in all, let this evangelism glorify God and make His name known in the city of Melbourne ! Let His name be great among the nations.

To God be the Glory who uses unworthy servants like us !! Amen !!

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"Best night of outreach in 6 months!"

Watch this video update from our Melbourne team who went into Bourke Street Mall last night to share the good news of Jesus.

For more info about this and other evangelism teams, go to: www.operation513.com/street-evangelism-teams

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A quick video testimony from our Melbourne evangelism team who went out to the Bourke Street Mall on Friday night to share the good news of Jesus with the lost.

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The Melbourne team was out on the streets again on Friday night, here is a quick video update from the team leader.

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As winter sets in here in Melbourne we are noticing that it is harder to create conversations as there are just fewer people lingering in the mall area to speak to. Despite this, God has still been opening doors for the gospel each week as we seek to share the Gospel with the lost. Here are a few highlights:

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Sophie

Sophie () was a young lady from mainland China who was here on holiday for a few months. We met her late one evening in March and it turned out that she was a band new Christian as of a few months earlier. She was so excited by what we were doing that she joined us for quite a few weeks on the street while in Australia. On her second week she acted as translator so that I could share the gospel with 2 older men from China. Sophie stayed with us for quite a few weeks while she was here and we were thrilled to watch her grow in her confidence in sharing Jesus with people. Hopefully as she goes home she will be better equipped to share about Jesus with those around her. 

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A Hindu Family

One evening we were struggling for decent conversations and so we posted a prayer request on Facebook. A few minutes later we bumped into an older Indian gentleman who was waiting for his family outside the shops. We began to share with him but within minutes his family came and joined us. His wife and older son returned to shopping but the father and younger son were very keen to talk. They knew nothing about Christianity beyond the fact that in India it seemed to attract poor people. We were able to step through the gospel in great depth with them and they were both intrigued by the message and very thankful for us taking the time to explain it to them.

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British Tourists

One April evening most of our team seemed to find really long conversations. Canaan & Peter chatted with this Atheist for more than an hour and were able to share the gospel in great detail.

At the same time, Troy, Amanda and I started a chat with two young British guys who were both very interested. Within a few minutes Troy and Amanda headed off for other conversations leaving me to chat with the 2 guys for more than 90 minutes. One was fairly clueless and knew almost nothing about Jesus. He asked brilliant questions and so often he asked about the next thing I wanted to share with him. The other guy was nominally Muslim from Egyptian descent and knew lots about religion. He was often able to jump in and explain crucial concepts and was many times almost doing my job for me! He also had so many questions and was thrilled that I was the first Christian he had met who could provide reasonable explanations for some really hard topics.

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New Team Members

We don't do open-air preaching very often but we had a go a couple of weeks ago. Not many people stopped to listen but afterwards Brad and Dave (far right) stopped to chat as they were also out doing evangelism in the city. To our surprise we bumped into them the following week as we gathered as a team and they joined us for a couple of hours of ministry. During that same week we were contacted by Lacey (3rd from left) who is here from the US for a short study trip. She had been grieved by the lostness she was encountering here in Melbourne and had Googled for evangelism teams in Melbourne and found us. She will join us for the remainder of her study trip.

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The Melbourne Team has now been meeting on Friday nights for around 4-5 months and though we have not kept up with our reports, there has been some great stuff happening. The team averages 6-8 people each week with a committed pool of around 10 workers. We meet to pray around 7pm and then head out to preach for 2 hours, usually as pairs doing "walk up" type witnessing. Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks (apologies for the very long post):

Friday 27th January

As many of you know, On Friday 20th January, a deranged man drove his car into Burke St mall and struck and killed a number of innocent people. As a result, the mood the following week was very different. Usually Burke St Mall is dominated by the sounds of very talented musicians busking and groups of people having fun, but this week things were very subdued. There was an astonishing collection of flowers left outside the GPO building as an impromptu memorial. We set out to preach and at first we were a little gun shy because of the mood, however we found the events of the previous week caused many to think about mortality.

Simon spoke to John and Tracey (pictured). John had a Catholic background and so Simon spoke to him about the relationship between works and grace. The Mall is very multi-cultural and we meet people from all over the world. Andrew spoke to a couple of different French groups and to a couple of Nepalese guys whose girlfriends got bored and walked away! He also spoke to a group of pastors from New Zealand who tragically could not between them articulate the gospel.

The best conversations of the night happened near the Memorial. Andrew and Elise spoke to Luke and his friend Naomi who were reading cards left with the flowers. They were both very open about eternal matters and Luke was really keen to read the Bible for himself. Andrew gave him a Bible and pointed him to the Gospel of John as a starting place.

Friday 3rd February

The best conversation of the night was with Raj, a Sihk guy who works security for a shopping complex on the Mall. The team has now spoken to him a few times and given him a Bible. He regularly asks great questions but at the same time he seems to be grasping for objections and trying to find reasons not to believe. 

Friday 10th February

There were many great conversations this week. Canaan and Amanda were able to share with Milee, a young lady who had been put off Christianity by her family and with John a catholic and his Mormon wife, Anne. Simon and Troy talked with Louis a spiritualist, and Arkash who was from a Hindu background. Andrew chatted with James, a Navy guy with an Anglican background who was employed in some sort of confidential role!

Friday 17th February

This was Simon's last night with us before he flew out to serve with MAF as a missionary pilot in Arnhem Land. We were sad to lose him but encouraged that he will be preaching the gospel wherever he goes.

Canaan chatted with a young man name Finn who was raised Catholic. He was very agreeable so it was a little difficult to see if he really held certain beliefs or was merely being polite. He had a right view of God's justice in punishing sinners and the need for forgiveness, even to the point of saying that he would be deserving of Gods wrath if he died. Unfortunately, he just seemed a little apathetic about it all.

There were huge numbers of tracts handed out that night (compared to normal for our small team) but comparatively few conversations.

Friday 24th February

The night started with a group of Mormon missionaries and a group of people giving out free hugs. The free hugs were nice enough, but the givers could not come up with a consistent motive for why they felt this was important. ​Andrew was able to share with one of them about the Gospel.

The Mormons were interesting. Canaan and Amanda spoke to 3 and Andrew and Elise spoke to 3. Andrew was able to speak to them about the integrity of the holy books as a reason to trust the Bible but reject the book of Mormon. He then transitioned to the differences in our respective understanding of atonement and about how Jesus had completed the payment for our sins, not just contributed to it. The young Mormon missionaries were intrigued by Ephesians 2:8-9 but then the leader of the group (from Canaan's conversation) burst in and declared that they all needed to head back now and that this conversation was pointless. Andrew declared that it was anything but pointless because one of us was clearly wrong and our souls were at stake. This angered the leader who left while the young Mormons lingered to read Ephesians 2:8-9 from their own preferred translation.

Andrew, Nick and Elise met Sergio (middle of photo) from Brazil who knew the right answers but seemed to lack a lot of fruit. Andrew challenged him about what true repentance looks like.

Canaan and Amanda finished the night chatting with this young couple who were quite friendly and reasonable. The guy was taking things in and seemed to be thinking through the Gospel rightly. The lady had a lot more objections, but it was nice for her to question back and forth and give her answers on things.

 

There are many wonderful things happening on the Melbourne team and we promise to write updates more often! Please continue to pray for us!

Soli Deo Gloria!

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After many weeks of 1-1 witnessing in Melbourne, and with Christmas upon us, this past Friday night we added open-air preaching to our ministry. God had been blessing our faithfulness with a slow growth in numbers for several months and so it was decided that we now had the critical mass to run open-air.

Our team met for prayer and then a few of us set up a tract table, a sketch board and PA in the mall while others walked off with hands full of tracts. With the massive crowds gathered in the mall for Christmas, it took less than 10 seconds to attract a crowd of 30-50 people. Many did not stay once they heard it was about Jesus, but quite a few remained for the whole message and were then followed up one on one.

While the preaching was happening, Hannah and Aditya met up with Helen, a non-believer Hannah had a week earlier who had demonstrated a very strong interest in the gospel. As they met with her this week, she was clearly impacted by both her sin and the love of Jesus to rescue her. While sitting with the 2 team members, she prayed and repented of her sin and asked God to rescue her.

There have been many, many other stories from these past few weeks and God has been gracious to have us share the good news with many who have never heard before. If you would like more information about the Melbourne ministry or would like to pray for the team as they minister on Friday nights, there is a group specifically dedicated to planning and prayer for this ministry at:

www.facebook.com/groups/Operation513.Melbourne

Soli Deo Gloria!

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For many months, we have tried to establish a Melbourne based ministry with only limited success. In the past 3-4 months, teams of 2 to 4 people have gone out Friday nights to share the gospel and by God’s grace we have had many wonderful conversations.

This week was different. Just 2 hours before our 7pm start time, people began to indicate that they would be out with us on the streets and by 6pm, we had 11 people committed to join us on the streets for the evening. This was a massive answer to many months and even years of prayer.

We gathered together at the GPO building to pray and get organised and then with tracts in hand, we paired up and walked out into the mall to share about our Saviour. Within just a couple of minutes I could see that almost every pair was engaged in conversation. Up and down Burke St Mall there were people sharing the gospel.

We talked to Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, Buddhists, Agnostics, lapsed Catholics and a couple of atheists. Many of the people in the mall are tourists and so we often share with people who are from relatively closed countries where mission work is difficult. Several people from the team obtained phone numbers to follow up people they chatted to.

One notable conversation from the night was with 2 girls from Bendigo who had a strong Catholic background. They had little understanding of the gospel but were very open to talk and asked some brilliant questions. Towards the end of the conversation it was clear that the message had got through to them, but rather than submit to the gospel, one started trying to find excuses to not believe. She seemed to be grasping for a way to wriggle out of repentance.

A couple of our team had to leave early but when most of us gathered back at around 9:30pm to debrief, everyone had great stories of people they talked to. Even though some of us were tired from our labour there was a genuine excitement about what had happened during the evening. We are immensely excited for where God is taking this ministry from here.

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